The political economy of salt in the Afar Regional State in northeast Ethiopia

Abstract

The Afar people are one of the most marginalised groups of people in the Horn of Africa. Politically they are fragmented into three countries – Ethiopia, Djibouti and Eritrea – and economically successive governments and more powerful neighbours have appropriated their fertile riverine lands. The economic and political marginalisation of the Afar in Ethiopia has continued even since the establishment of a federal system and the subsequent creation of the Afar Regional State in 1991. The paper chronicles and analyses the process of marginalisation of the Afar through a case study of the political economy of the recently discovered salt reserve at Lake Afdera, its impact on the derailment of Ethiopia's iodisation programme, and the associated public health risks.

Keywords:

• Afar
• Ethiopia
• political economy of salt
• decentralisation

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank all Afar who trusted and shared their concerns and information with him on a sensitive subject such as this.